She Says… Lights, Camera, Action

See that? That’s me, with a microphone in my back pocket. And that guy with the camera? It’s not my husband (though he is usually the guy with the camera in our house). He’s a cameraman for the German television channel, RTL. And that woman in the doorway is a producer who was interviewing me about my pregnancy test video, how it ended up online and what our blog is all about. That was the scene in my house yesterday afternoon.

Random. I know.

They contacted me a week or two ago and asked if they could come interview the whole family. Of course I said yes, because a) I love being in front of the camera, and b) what a strange and interesting request… how could I say no?!

It isn’t the first time our pregnancy test video has garnered attention. We’ve been contacted a few times about various companies using the video, and it was used on the Today Show and the Australian Today Show after the Slate Magazine article. Generally I’m all, “Of course you can use it!”, but I still feel a little burned by the Slate article that made me out to be a total crazy person who put the link up before I even shared the news with my mom. Which was TOTALLY not the case. Most of the stories that have been done about this “crazy, self-absorbed fad” didn’t even take the time to click through to my blog to see that when I posted the video I had no intention of making it a YouTube sensation… I was just sharing a happy moment with my blog readers.

Anyway, this German producer did not seem to have an agenda to make me out to be a crazy person, and she had taken the time to read my blog, so I agreed to do the interview.

It was really fun to set up the shots and answer her questions. As I said, I love being in front of the camera. Benjamin called me a “soundbyte machine”, as I seemed to come out with all of these little one-liners that will look/sound good in the piece. What can I say, I aim to please. Perhaps all of the acting and musical theater in my past paid off! Anyone looking for an actress/cooking show host/talk show host/news anchor/commercial actress?

Owen seems to have inherited that performer gene too (but we already knew that, now, didn’t we). We woke him up from his nap and hour early with a camera light in his face and he smiled right on cue and said “Hi guy!” to the cameraman with his lovey dangling sweetly out of his mouth. He was a little weirded out when we tried to manufacture “normal” scenarios like chopping vegetables for dinner when it was 3:30 in the afternoon, but after he warmed up to the crew he was hamming it up.

The funniest part about all of this is that since the piece was for a German morning show like The Today Show or Good Morning America, it will (duh) all be in German. So our voices will be dubbed over with German. Hilarious.

I’ll be sure to post the final cut if I am allowed. Any readers with access to RTL, keep your eyes open for us! I think it may air later this week.

Now if only I could parlay these random opportunities into moneymaking opportunities, maybe I could actually do this for my real life!

Very cool!! Totally random, maybe this was just for the cameras, but I’m impressed that you can keep your house decorated with photos and books, etc. and that Owen’s toys are all in a cabinet. My son would have a field day climbing in your cabinets and up the shelves DESTROYING every nice thing you ever bought! I should know…he’s done it to all of my stuff!! My husband and I wonder why we ever bought ANYTHING nice pre-kids! Can’t wait to see the video!!

@Jen, Not just for the cameras! That’s how it looks all of the time. The cabinet he was playing in is just a small place where we keep some toys in the living room — most of his toys and (ahem, UGLY stuff) are up in his playroom. That cabinet explodes every day when we play, and then we put it all back before bedtime. All of the cabinets except his toy cabinet are baby proofed and so far he hasn’t climbed on top of that particular counter to grab the pictures down. He does ask us to get them down for him and he cradles/gazes at them and is super careful, so perhaps we dodged a bullet on that one.

Owen is so sweet! Well, I hope I didn’t jinx you! :) I don’t know about you, but we feel like we’re in a second round of baby-proofing as our son gets taller and just more adventurous! And the climbing will send me to an early grave!!

I am floored that Owen woke up so positively from his nap with a film crew there! I’m quite sure Cameron would have been petrified! I hope you’re able to get a link to the story when it’s up although it will most likely be in German?

I’m a girl from Germany and watched the interview on RTL yesterday. Then I searched for your vid (which took me some time) because I wanted to see it a second time. You’re such a nice person and I cried with you. So I will definitely read some of your blog posts. “this German producer did not seem to have an agenda to make me out to be a crazy person” – and they didn’t. They only said it’s everyone’s personal decision wether to share such an experience or not (many moms form Germany said they wouldn’t, it’s too private for them). So don’t worry, everything’s okay :)).